Skip to content
  • Home
  • reviews
  • Info
Mournful Sounds

Mournful Sounds

  • Home
  • reviews
  • Info
11 March 201319 May 2022 S.Antonsson articoli

Nocte Obducta – Umbriel (Das Schweigen Zwischen Den Sternen)

In the past decade Nocte Obducta have been among the top representatives of the avant-garde, atmospheric black metal that has always found fertile ground in Germany. After allegedly disbanding in 2006, following the recording of Sequenzen Einer Wanderung, later released in 2008) , part of the band gave birth to a new project called Dinner Auf Uranos, with which they released an excellent work as 50 Sommer – 50 Winter, where the extreme component of the sound was put aside altogether. What seemed to be the end of the story for the Mainz combo, as often happens, turned into a period of stand-by interrupted in 2011 by the release of Verderbnis – Der Schnitter Kratzt An Jeder Tür, finally followed by the recent Umbriel (Das Schweigen Zwischen Den Sternen), the subject of this review. After several listens it can be stated with certainty that the only thing wrong with this operation was the use of the old identity: in fact, Umbriel has few common traits with either the first post-reunion work or the old masterpieces, appearing rather as the logical successor precisely to 50 Sommer – 50 Winter (a connection also supported by the presence, not coincidentally, of a long track entitled precisely Dinner Auf Uranos). Obviously, the comparison with the two Teil and with Sequenzen itself would be unfair and even pitiless: here we are talking, in essence, about a band different in stylistic choices and, in part, also in attitude; therefore, the only way to make an objective examination of Umbriel is to forget about the moniker printed on the cover. The black elements, which all in all appear to be a sort of due act aimed at maintaining some reference to the band’s past, are basically confined to Mehr Hass alone, but it is in the rest of the album that Nocte Obducta show their (new) best face, under the banner of a shadowy and evocative dark, which often goes intertwined with passages of a post metal style. Whether one likes such a turn or not, a track like Leere is unquestionably an authentic jewel imbued with a decadent lyricism that cannot leave one indifferent; the opener Kerkerwelten – Teil I, the instrumental 01-86 Umbriel and Ein Nachmittag Mit Edgar also follow, albeit with some variations on the theme, this melancholic and decidedly introspective trend. Rather contradictory, on the other hand, are the aforementioned Dinner Auf Uranos and its instrumental “reprise,” which get lost in some superfluous ambient passages, with the only result of weighing down an album that, both in length and content, is not exactly easy listening. Nothing to object, however, about the beautiful closing entrusted to Kerkerwelten – Teil II, which lets itself go in its last minutes to sorrowful doom-like melodies. Nocte Obducta of 2013, therefore, have little to do with those of the last decade, but their transformation into a band with more intimate and elegant sounds does not necessarily mean a significant lowering of the quality level of the proposal and, when all is said and done, the positive aspects far outweigh the negative ones; it is simply a matter of understanding the musical content with a different mental approach: only in this way will it be possible to appreciate without prejudice the work of what remains, always and in any case, a band of great value.

2013 – MDD Records

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Tagged black, postmetal

Post navigation

Mourning Beloveth – Formless
Who Dies In Siberian Slush – We Have Been Dead Since Long Ago

Blog dedicated to extreme doom in its darkest and most melancholic connotations, but not only…

Archives

Tag

ambient black dark deathdoom depressive doommetal funeral gothicdoom postmetal sludge
March 2013
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Feb   Apr »

Blog seguiti

  • overthewall's blog
  • Il Raglio del Mulo

Facebook

Facebook
https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/10501808/full-legal
Blog at WordPress.com.
overthewall's blog

The dark legacy of MetalEyes

Il Raglio del Mulo

Raccolta disordinata di interviste

  • Follow Following
    • Mournful Sounds
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Mournful Sounds
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.